World Spay Day Celebrations!

Published:
2/13/2014

Animal Care & Control and Friends of Pets Celebrate 20th World Spay Day

Spay or neuter fees sponsored for animals up for adoption

It’s not just rabbits who multiply like rabbits.

Anchorage Animal Care and Control Center (AACCC) and local animal welfare nonprofit, Friends of Pets, will participate in World Spay Day, an international campaign of The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International, to promote the life-saving benefits of spay and neuter, by off-setting the cost of spay and neuter fees for those adopting animals from the shelter for a limited time.

From Valentine’s Day (February 14) until World Spay Day (February 25), every cat and pit bull mix dog adopted from the AACCC, up to 50 animals, will received a free spay or neuter provided by Friends of Pets. Cats adopted will have their $80 spay or neuter surgery done at the shelter, with the cost covered by Friends of Pets. Community members adopting pit bull mix dogs will be given a spay/neuter coupon from Friends of Pets, which will cover the entire spay or neuter fee if done at the Alaska SPCA Clinic or defray $85 of the cost of spay or neuter at their chosen veterinary clinic. All spay/neuter sponsored fees and coupons provided by Friends of Pets are only available to residents of the Municipality of Anchorage.

“Spay/neuter saves pets' lives while lessening the burden on animal shelters and taxpayers,” said Myra Wilson, Center Manager at AACCC. “Members of the public can help by sponsoring the spay or neuter of at least one animal they know—their own, a friend or family member's—in honor of the 20th Anniversary of Spay Day this year. This will not only prevent the birth of unwanted puppies and kittens, but will also enhance the pet’s health and quality of life.”

Spaying or neutering involves a one-time surgery and is not only part of responsible pet ownership, but it is also a humane way to decrease the number of animal euthanized in shelters across the country.

Since World Spay Day's inception in 1995 (then called Spay Day USA), it is conservatively estimated that participants have spayed or neutered nearly two million animals. It has been a proud achievement of World Spay Day participants like AACCC, Friends of Pets, and other spay/neuter programs that the number of homeless cats and dogs euthanized in the U.S. has fallen from approximately 13.5 million in 1973 to fewer than three million currently.